TY - CHAP AB - Purpose In recent years, aceted search has been a well-accepted approach for many academic libraries across the United States. This chapter is based on the author’s dissertation and work of many years on faceted library catalogs. Not to hope to be exhaustive, the author’s aim is to provide sufficient depth and breadth to offer a useful resource to researchers, librarians, and practitioners about faceted search used in library catalogs.Method The chapter reviews different aspects of faceted search used in academic libraries, from the theory, the history, to the implementation. It starts with the history of online public access catalogs (OPACs) and how people search with OPACs. Then it introduces the classic facet theory and its relationship with faceted search. At last, various academic research projects on faceted search, especially faceted library catalogs, are briefly reviewed. These projects include both implementation studies and the evaluation studies.Findings The results indicate that most searchers were able to understand the concept of facets naturally and easily. Compared to text searches, however, faceted searches were complementary and supplemental, and used only by a small group of searchers.Practical implications The author hopes that the facet feature has not only been cosmetic but the answer to the call for the next generation catalog for academic libraries. The results of this research are intended to inform librarians and library information technology (IT) staff to improve the effectiveness of the catalogs to help people find information they need more efficiently. VL - 7 SN - 978-1-78190-559-3, 978-1-78190-560-9/1876-0562 DO - 10.1108/S1876-0562(2013)0000007013 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/S1876-0562(2013)0000007013 AU - Niu Xi PY - 2014 Y1 - 2014/01/01 TI - Faceted Search in Library Catalogs T2 - New Directions in Information Organization T3 - Library and Information Science PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 173 EP - 208 Y2 - 2024/03/29 ER -